'Wonder Woman' powers Time Warner to profit beat

Rishika Sadam, Reuters

a poster promoting the movie Wonder Woman is seen at a cinema in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, May 30, 2017.
, The Canadian Press

Time Warner Inc (TWX.N), which is in the process of being bought by AT&T Inc (T.N), reported a much better-than-expected quarterly profit, driven by the box-office success of its latest superhero movie "Wonder Woman".

The company's shares were up 1.2 per cent at US$103.74 in premarket trading on Wednesday.

Revenue from the company's Warner Bros unit, which includes the movie business, rose 12.4 per cent to US$2.99 billion, topping analysts' average estimate of US$2.90 billion, according to data and analytics firm FactSet.

"Wonder Woman", starring Israeli actress Gal Gadot, grossed about US$800 million worldwide through July 31, the company said on Wednesday. Spurred by the smashing success of the movie, Warner Bros last month announced a December 2019 date for a sequel.

Revenue in the company's Turner unit, which includes CNN and sports channel TNT, rose 3.1 per cent to US$3.1 billion in the second quarter as higher subscription revenues more than offset declining ad revenue.

Like other media companies, Time Warner has been struggling to keep viewers hooked to its channels as they flock to online streaming services such as Netflix (NFLX.O) and Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O) Prime Video, a trend that is taking a toll on ad sales as well.